Wellfleet resists single-stream recycling, citing costs

Saturday

Feb 25, 2017 at 7:00 AM

By Bari HassmanBanner Staff

WELLFLEET — Though the town recycles presorted items that are taken to its transfer station, there’s not a single recycling bin at its beaches, ponds or marina — or even on Main Street. Some residents are asking why.

“We tried [putting out recycling bins] a few years ago but people look at garbage cans and recycling bins and treat them the same,” Dan Hoort, who became Wellfleet’s town administrator in August 2016, said by phone last week. “Then the recycling is contaminated and has to be thrown out. It’s dangerous for the [dept. of public works] workers, too. They find broken glass and once even a syringe mixed in.”

But some townspeople think recycling would be easier for visitors and DPW workers if Wellfleet had single-stream recycling, in which all recyclables, including paper, plastics and aluminum, are deposited in one container and sorted by staff at the recycling center.

“We’d love to have single-stream recycling, but we don’t have the staff,” said Hoort. “It’s expensive for the town to purchase the equipment, such as heavy-duty trash compactors and different types of hauling containers.”

Hoort estimated that it would cost the town between $400,000 and $500,000 to bring single-stream to Wellfleet, an estimate based on the $335,000 it cost Provincetown to switch to single-stream recycling in 2013. Hoort was formerly Provincetown’s finance director.

According to Challenge for Sustainability, an organization that works with Boston institutions and companies to show the advantages of single-stream recycling, its cost is offset by its benefits. Among the benefits listed on the organization’s website are collection cost savings, fuel savings and an increase in the frequency with which people and businesses recycle, which reduces pollution significantly.

Truro switched to single-stream recycling last year.

“[There] were no costs associated with the switch to single-stream and no extra manpower required,” Truro DPW Director Jarrod Cabral said in an email. “Solid waste tonnage is trending down [and] it’s far more efficient and effective for the transfer station operation.”

There are several ideas in development to address the recycling problem in Wellfleet.

“There’s staffing considerations for the DPW,” Lydia Vivante, co-chair of the Wellfleet Recycling Committee, told the Banner. “One option people are considering is to hire a company to maintain single-stream recycling bins and take the recyclables off-Cape to Bourne. We’re also seeing if we can pay Provincetown to take them.”

That, however, would require Wellfleet to sort its own recycling. But Vivante thinks single-stream recycling is only part of the solution.

“At one point we have to put the brakes on all the single-serve water bottles. What’s wrong with refilling containers and using tap water?” said Vivante. “We paid a lot for the water system and we have great water.”

Educating residents and tourists is another issue — Vivante says she is in favor of the “carry in, carry out” concept. Right now it’s a voluntary program on the ocean beaches.

“The idea is to encourage people to be aware of what you’re bringing onto the beach and taking it back out with you. Don’t just leave it there,” said Vivante. “That concept is at work at a lot of state park and national park trails.”

“I’m all for recycling and I think putting recycling bins in public spaces is a good idea,” said Wellfleet resident Dennis O’Connell. “I ask that people understand the economics of it. I hope people will cost it out and understand the demands it will put on the DPW system. We need to follow this all the way through and understand what we will get for the amounts we recycle as a town.”

Forty-year Wellfleet resident Marla Rice, who works alongside the recycling committee to reduce pollution, doesn’t think the town has another choice.

“Inevitably single-stream recycling is the thing to do and my plan is to ask the selectmen to look into it,” she said. “Although we don’t have single-stream recycling, that’s no reason for us not to provide people with the opportunity to recycle.”